No. III. Dakotas had plenty of white men’s cattle (the result of the peace).
Mato Sapa agrees with No. III.
BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XXXII
1869-’70.
1870-’71.
THE DAKOTA WINTER COUNTS.
1869-’70.—No. I. Eclipse of the moon.
No. II. An eclipse of the sun. This was the solar eclipse of August 7, 1869, which was central and total on a line drawn through the Dakota country. This device has been criticised because the Indians believe an eclipse to be occasioned by a dragon or aerial monster swallowing the sun, and it is contended that they would so represent it. An answer is that the design is objectively good, the sun being painted black, as concealed, while the stars come out red, i. e., bright, and graphic illustration prevails throughout the charts where it is possible to employ it. In addition, it is learned that Prof. Cleveland Abbé, who was famed as an astronomer before he became so as a meteorologist, was at Sioux Falls, with a corps of assistants, to observe this very eclipse, and explained the subject to a large number of Indians there at that time, so that their attention was not only directed specially to that eclipse, but also to the white men as interested in it, and to its real appearance as apart from their old superstition.